Posted on 08/17/2004 2:38:57 PM PDT by unspun
By The Leader-Chicago Bureau (admin@illinoisleader.com)
CHICAGO -- Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes has just released a statement clarifying what appeared to be a surprising position he took at a news conference yesterday.
"I think a cogent argument could be made for reparations in principle," Keyes is quoted as saying to reporters yesterday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
The Chicago Tribune expanded:
Keyes gave a brief tutorial on Roman history and said that in regard to reparations for slavery, the U.S. should do what the Romans did: "When a city had been devastated [in the Roman empire], for a certain length of time--a generation or two--they exempted the damaged city from taxation."Keyes proposed that for a generation or two, African-Americans of slave heritage should be exempted from federal taxes--federal because slavery "was an egregious failure on the part of the federal establishment."
The response from conservatives was immediate. "Who downstate will now vote for Keyes?" wrote IllinoisLeader.com reader Randall Mead of Springfield today. "I certainly won't."
This afternoon, Keyes released the following statement, clarifying his position:
I have consistently opposed the effort to extort monetary damages from the American people. As I have argued in the past, the great sacrifices involved in the Civil War represented the requital in blood and treasure for the terrible injustices involved in slavery. In this form the so called "reparations" movement represents an insult to the historic commitment that many Americans made to the end of slavery, which included the sacrifice of their lives.I have also consistently maintained that the history of slavery, racial segregation and discrimination did real damage to black Americans, left real and persistent material wounds in need of healing.
In various ways through the generations since the end of slavery, America has tried to address this objective fact, but without real success. This was at least in part the rational for many elements of the Great Society programs of the sixties, and for the original and proper concept of affirmative action developed under Republican leadership during the Nixon years.
Unfortunately, the government-dominated approaches of the Great Society, which purported to heal and repair the legacy of historical damage, actually widened and deepened the wounds. They undermined the moral foundations of the black community and seriously corrupted the family structure and the incentives to work, savings, investment, and business ownership.
The idea I have often put forward to address this challenge involves a traditionally Republican, conservative and market-oriented approach: removing the tax burden from the black community for a generation or two in order to encourage business ownership, create jobs and support the development of strong economic foundations for working families.
This has the advantage of letting people help themselves, rather then pouring money into government bureaucracies that displace and discourage their own efforts. It takes no money from other citizens, while righting the historic imbalance that results from the truth that black slaves toiled for generations at a tax rate that was effectively 100 percent.
I have also made it clear that while I believe that the descendants of slaves would be helped by this period of tax relief, my firm goal and ultimate objective is to replace the income tax, and thereby free all Americans from this insidious form of tax slavery. It is well known that this is one of the key priorities of the Keyes campaign.
In response to Keyes' statement, conservative Jack Roeser of Family Taxpayers Network told IllinoisLeader.com, "I expect Keyes would say this is one of those interesting subjects to be talked about among people sharing ideas. Reparations is an impractical concept. Everybody in every category has been wronged in one or the other, and you cannot single one out."
Roeser continued, "Keyes is a man of ideas, and I expect he gets into discussions like this that are proper in their proper place, but that he would never vote for reparations. The problem with American politics is that people don't get into deep discussions."
© 2004 IllinoisLeader.com -- all rights reserved
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Resentment over the mere mention of tax break for the descendents of slaves? :sigh: Well anyway some people are too sensitive.
Only if that's what some people want.
?????
When did I say Keyes had a shot? Or when did I say it would be better if Obama should win?
Keyes would be a better senator than the majoity of Pubs now in that august body.
Not sensitive. Consistent.
Jesse Jackson has mentioned reparations for slaves as well. I resent that as well.
I don't believe in "reparations".
I find it hard to believe Keyes is being acurately cited here.
Thousands of thousands of white boys paid "reparations at places like Antietem, Gettysburg, etc for the price of physical slavery.
Thousands of thousands more were unfairly penalized by "affirmative action" in the later 20th century and into the present.
Enough of "reparations". No black living today in America was a slave, nor were his parents, or, in all likelihood his grandparents. Today the average black has as much opportuinity to succeed as the average white in achieving the American dream if only he or she struggles like everyone else to achieve it.
Every ethnic group which arrived here was subject to some kind of persecution, either here or where they came from.
If Keyes has no chance of winning why is everyone getting so upset at him bringing up tax breaks for descendants of slaves? A tax break would only apply to people already paying taxes. I don't get upset because rich people I know pay less taxes with tax shelters,etc.
Depends on the rat count in Congress. It's clear that if the rats have control, or near control, he'll go for it in a heartbeat. Not tax breaks, but outright payments and redistribution. That's the way the rats work. Else he'll keep quite about this and limit himself to the most popular redistribution schemes. He has quite a following in the suburbs and around the State, because of the amount of perks folks imagine they'll get if he gets the seat.
Absolutely.
Good post. I'm scratching my head over this as well, and wondering why some people can't see how much resentment this could foment in this country. Can you imagine how ugly this could get?
Because it's racist.
If you're a supporter of Keyes, you should be appalled at his embrace of a Jesse Jackson, race-pimping, gun-to-the-head scheme.
Oh great. Now every African-American is going to refuse to pay taxes, citing Keyes, and saying we owe it to them.
It's never going to happen.
Based on the color of their skin?
because I don't operate based on envy.
Um, "envy"
Who said anything about "envy"?
What does "envy" have to do with race-based preferential treatment?
So much for MLK's "I have a dream" concept, I guess. All that business about a color-blind society, where the color of a person's skin had nothing to do with the way he was treated? We seem to be back to square one.
I have done my utmost,to try to push buttons,telling them that we need the seat,we need a majority in the Senate,to help president Bush;however,the more he opens his mouth,the more people he's driving away...as usual.
Some people here think that because THEY love listening to him,that everyone else will.That's just is NOT the way it is.He's driven people away,who used to like him,by what he says and people,who never heard of him/wouldn't have voted for him anyway,aren't being converted.
You may think that he has "raised the level of debate",but when he goes off into something like this,it DESTROYS the debates for the average voter.It's that old KISS,that he just never seems to be able to grasp.
So, you noticed that the General is AWOL also, I see. LOL
Try to control yourself.........LOL. You're making me laugh at you.......don't try to make too much sense here!
If Keyes has no chance of winning why is everyone getting so upset at him bringing up tax breaks for descendants of slaves?
Are you freeping kidding me? You think people are merely too "sensitive" if they think that it's not a good idea for taxes to be decided on the basis of race? You don't think Alan Keyes' idea wouldn't cause resentment, when he wants all blacks in this country to be free from paying income tax, and put all the tax burden on the whites? Maybe you just think anything Alan Keyes says is just peachy, but what you euphemistically refer to "tax breaks" would be putting all the tax burden on white people, while Shaquille O'Neal and Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey (and their potential descendants) would go tax-free. Last time I checked, discrimination was banned in this country, but you're willing to not only swallow it, but tell us it tastes great, because your hero supports it.
He's to the RIGHT of Keyes.........LOL.
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